Tod und Künstler (Death and the Artist) Possibly 1921 - 1922

Lovis Corinth made this etching, "Death and the Artist," using a metal plate and acid, pulling the image into being out of darkness. Can you feel the artist’s hand move? I can imagine Corinth, hunched over the plate, scratching furiously, the acid biting into the metal. Death, a skull, hovers over the artist’s shoulder as Corinth works on, the hand holding the tool. It’s like he’s trying to outrun death with every mark. Look at the lines, how they dig into the paper, creating depth, a kind of raw, urgent energy. He's looking to Goya here and also anticipating the expressionists. There’s a conversation happening here, not just with death, but with art history itself. Each scratch is a challenge, an embrace, a struggle to make something real. It reminds me that art is never really finished, just abandoned, and that’s okay. It’s all part of the dance.